REACH OUT: The Preschool Connection

Some congregations have very successful preschools but they seem separate from the congregation. I've had people ask me how to build a bridge to their preschool families and my answer is always the same... "Show them Jesus!" What a great blessing that God has brought the mission field INTO YOUR CHURCH!

How do you serve your preschool families?

• Find out about them.  How many are divorced?  How many have single parents?  How many have other kids in the family and what are their ages?
• Offer single parents support through free babysitting once or twice a month to give them a break.
• Have a group of people who like to cook prepare some one-dish meals for some of the families in need or single parents.
• Involve members in Bible story time. Have them share their favorite Bible stories. (They can show, tell, or read from a children's Bible.)
• Include a service component in your confirmation classes where the kids are required to volunteer so many hours a month in the preschool.  Have the director or teachers make lists of service opportunities.
• Have members volunteer to watch the kids on the playground so the teachers can have some meeting or work time.
• Involve the kids in worship services on a regular basis to get families to mingle with the congregation.
• Provide preschool activity bags to help keep the kids busy during worship and include small bags of appropriate treats (that won't cause a mess in the sanctuary).
• Have a clothing and/or toy swap.
• Write a focus article on a preschool family in your newletter so people can get to know them.  Give them a special gift for participating.
• During church events have prizes such as a meal a week for a month, 3 months, a semester, or longer.

A preschool can be a great addition to a church community and many people think they will bring families into the church and they will. If the community is a reflection of Jesus, they won't help but be drawn in.  Show them Jesus!

LEADERSHIP: A FIXED or GROWTH Mindset?

I had to read a book for graduate school that I would love to encourage you all to take a gander at. It's Carol Dweck's book, Mindset: The new psychology of success. Basically, it's about the two mindsets that describe how we deal with or define failure and success: fixed and growth. Understanding the two mindsets will help you understand yourself and just as importantly, those in your leadership circles, and even your congregation. The most important thing to know is that mindsets can change!

FIXED

• take things personally that aren't personal
• label themselves negatively based on outcomes
• need their egos polished regularly
• don't like to take risks
• feel they are judged
• choose the short-term solution to boost stock and look like a hero, etc. 

GROWTH 

• see failure as a setback
• work on getting better at things
• are concerned with learning and growing
• know they can change
• look for people to help them
• choose the long-term solution for organizational improvement, etc. 

Do you or does your congregation have a 

fixed mindset or a growth mindset?

CONFIRMATION: Ever try QUIZLET?

Every once in a while I try to create some online tools for confirmation using existing programs and this time I'd like to introduce you all to Quizlet. It's a great tool for learning vocabulary and I added one for WORSHIP TERMS because I think that instead of assuming students think knowing about worship terms is boring and so not teaching them, we should do the opposite and assume they like to feel smart and be smart about their faith and what they believe.

So, here's what you can do with Quizlet. Once you get to my list: LW 101; Worship Terms, you can see the different options.

• STUDY: Flashcards, Learn, Speller, Test  
• PLAY:  Scatter, Space Race

Flashcards
Of course, nobody really thinks flashcards are fun, but they are a fantastic learning tool. Students can use them to learn the term or the definition and there's an audio function that works pretty well for pronunciation.

Learn
The best way to use this section is to show the definition and have the student type in the term, but it can be done the other way around too.

Speller
This is actually pretty great. The definition is given and the Quizlet lady speaks the term and the student has to spell it.

Test
The test is excellent! You can decide what type of questions to which students should respond:  written, matching, multiple choice, or true/false.

Scatter
This is a matching game. Both terms and definitions are on the screen and need to be put together.

Race
In this game the definitions scroll by and the student needs to type in the term to earn the points.

How can you use this with a confirmation class? 
Any one of these tools can be used independently or as a full class. First, I recommend giving them a week to learn and play. After that week, take time out of class and...

• The games are timed. Put students in groups and invest in a wireless mouse. Allow each group to compete in a chosen activity.  
• Print one side of the cards and show the other side on the screen. The object is to have students put the terms in the correct order that you show the definitions. (Try not to go back too many times.)
• Test them using the online quiz. Show it on a screen and have them take it independently.
• Have a class tournament throughout the week. Sign up yourself and create your own or use my card set. The program keeps track of high scores.

PLAY AND LEARN!!

ACTIVITY: Paper Plane Ice Breaker

It's the beginning of the year and people will be beginning new groups. I don't know if this ice breaker is out there yet, but if not, I just came up with it. Everybody can make a paper plane so start with giving everyone a sheet of white (or the same color) paper. Remind them not to put their name on it, because we've all been taught so well to do that, that we do it without thinking. After that you can go one of two ways.

1. Simple Ice Breaker

• Write 5-10 "getting to know you" questions and have everyone put their answers on the paper  without showing anybody their answers.
• Fold the paper into an airplane.
• Put everyone in a circle or around the edge of the room and have them fly their airplane into the middle of the room.
• Everyone picks an airplane (not theirs) and reads the answers aloud.
• The person reading gets the first chance and then the group tries to guess the identity of the author.
• OPTION 1:  Have people stand on a line and throw the planes. The one that goes the furthest gets to go first.
• OPTION 2:  Have people write a question that everyone has to answer on the airplane . 

2. Go Deeper
Instead of "getting to know you" questions, use this method to have students ask or answer questions anonymously during a Bible study to enhance discussion.

• Prepare questions ahead of time and have students answer them anonymously. 
• Have students agree or disagree with a topic, including support... discuss. 
• Have students ask questions about faith, life, or the world that will be used for discussion of a topic. 

Remember that the key to growth really is through discussion. It's the socratic method and it works every time!

RALLY SUNDAY: Commissioning the Whole Congregation

I mentioned Rally Sunday being the perfect day to commission the whole congregation and a DCE friend asked me what I imagined that would look like. What do you commission them for? We commission leaders in the church and teachers but we rarely commission the whole congregation as if now that there are other people doing those jobs that it's all covered. They can relax. Hmmm... not so quick there, Sparky. We commission people because we want to empower them to serve and affirm their commitment. Why would we not want the entire congregation to know they are also commissioned into service whether it's a formal leadership and/or education position or not?

What would that look like? There are commissioning services available online, in hymnals, and in the Lutheran Service Book but personally, I would do something simple. First I would commission the board members or formal leaders, then the teachers, and finally the congregation. Start with an appropriate Bible verse for leaders/teachers and a few statements about what they are being called to do with "I will with the help of God" replies, and a brief prayer of thankfulness and encouragement. Many commissioning services are not this simple but I don't believe in making an entire worship service about focusing on one group of people. We worship God, not our volunteers.

The congregation is being commissioned for any and/or all of the following:

• participating in the community that is the congregation. 
• living in the light of Christ in their neighborhoods.
• encouraging and participating in Christian education for themselves and their families.
• living as an example to people living in a non-Christian society.
• making disciples as they go about their everyday lives.

After this there is the prayer for all commissioned to live and share the truth of the Gospel, asking God to strengthen and preserve them, etc. Seriously, every pastor is better at writing these things than I am but that's how I see it in my mind... simple, straightforward, encouraging, and empowering.

Why not remind everyone that we are all an extension of our Lord and the church this Rally Sunday?

EDUCATION: Great book for the wee ones!

Do You Know Who Jesus Is?

It's always hard to find a good resource for young kids, but I've found one! There a lot they can't understand about faith, but they CAN understand the stories and the story of Jesus is the best and most important one to share with them. Most rhyming books try so hard to rhyme and be clever that they use vocabulary far beyond that of a 2nd grader, however, the new booklet from the Lutheran Hour Ministries called Do You Know Who Jesus Is? is really good. I just read it and the illustrations are perfect for the age group, the rhyming is simple, and the vocabulary age appropriate. It also does a really nice job of telling a simple story. Just add a song like Jesus Loves Me and a prayer and it's an excellent devotion, Jesus Time class lesson, chapel talk or children's message.

This resource would be great for:

• Christian Schools - devotion, Jesus Time class lesson, chapel talk
• Christian School - new students gifts!!
• Church Pew Bags for kids.
• Children's Message - Break it into sections or take the time to read the whole thing.
• New member or visitor gift for a family with young children.

Check out the preview and order here.

YOUNG ADULTS: We're off to see the professor!

It's getting to be that time of year when our lovely high school graduates will be excitedly skipping off to college, to be in charge of their own time. What does that mean? Well, depending on where they're going, they may not see the inside of a church for a while. After all, sleeping in on Sunday morning is an easy habit to start when you may have to look for a ride to a church. How do we keep them connected?

As I was thinking about this and trying hard to remember my college years (quite some time ago). I thought about how my feelings of "home" changed. At some point I started thinking of the campus as home. College is one of those experiences where you are part of a group of people in a similar somewhat stressful situation, so you develop strong bonds pretty quickly. You make new friends and it doesn't take long before you recognize that you may not have a lot to say to those friends you left behind, who went their way and made new friends too. The thing is, that's a normal process. Sending care packages is nice, but our concern should be that they find ways to continue to grow their faith on this new journey.

To that end I recommend the following: 

• Find out if there's a faith organization on campus. Contact their office and let them know the name of the youth who will matriculate there in the fall.
• Find out if there's a Lutheran church near the campus and contact them as well, sharing the name of the student and asking that somebody reach out to see if the student needs a ride to church. Try using Student Connect, to help find a Christian faith community.
• If possible, have the parents visit the church with their child before s/he moves into the dorm, apartment, etc. 
• Get your youth in the habit of doing weekly online devotions either in a blog format (students can help write them) or on a Facebook page. The devotions can be sent out to phones, computers, or tablets. Make sure you ask a question and see if you can get some responses.
•  Pray in written form for those students on those electronic pages as well. Create some memes of Bible verses and add their first names to them so they (high school and college youth) know when it's their turn. I found in my classroom that kids loved knowing I was praying for them when it was their turn. 
• Remember that not going to church for a while at this age is normal. This is a transition time. They need to choose worship for themselves and come to a realization that they're doing it for them, not for others. At some point it needs to be a response to God, not your parents.
• In October or November start asking them how they want to participate in a worship service when they get home. Start transitioning them into an adult role. Have them read scripture during the service, be a last minute usher, help with communion, etc. 
• College students often have a long break over Christmas, get them involved with Christmas activities and have them substitute for Sunday School teachers on break. 
• This is the big one. Have them talk to the high schoolers about what they've learned about themselves while away. As the frontal cortex of their brains continue to develop, it's important for them to continue thinking about and talking about their faith in connection to their life and life choices. Let it be simple question/answer, but have a few thoughtful questions prepared ahead of time to get things going. A few samples:
• How is college different from high school? 
• How are the people in college different from the people in high school?
• What have you noticed about your faith in this time? Growing? Shrinking?
• What do you miss the most?
• Is it hard to find a church? :
• Do you find yourself praying more or less? 
• What's the best thing about college?
• What's the hardest thing about college?
• It would also be super cool if you could get a few together to talk to the adults too!! Just sayin...

The bottom line is that it will be rare for them to go off to college and remain close with their high school friends for too long. Some do, but most grow apart. We need to find ways to help them transition to their new roles as more independent young adults or just plain adults like the rest of us.